Cary Fukunaga drops out of It

New Line’s adaptation of Stephen King’s It has suffered a major setback, with director Cary Fukunaga dropping out of the project after falling out with the studio.

The news comes after months of niggling issues between the two parties, with Fukunaga angered by significant budget cuts imposed by the studio. It has also been suggested that the New Line was pushing for a single, commercially accessible film as opposed to the two-episode epic Fukunaga had in mind.

Will Poulter had recently been cast as the villainouse clown, Pennywise, with the project having been scheduled to get underway this summer. It remains to be seen whether New Line attempts to keep to that schedule with a new director, or takes the whole thing back to the drawing board…

In any case, it looks like the version of the film that had us so excited isn’t going to be materialising any time soon. However, as Stephen King himself helpfully tweeted, “The remake of IT may be dead – or undead- but we’ll always have Tim Curry. He’s still floating around down in the sewers of Derry.”